Earlier this summer, at noon on what may have been the hottest day of the year, the buzzy new Brooklyn restaurant and wine bar the Four Horsemen hadn’t yet opened its doors for service — they usually serve from the late afternoon until late at night — but three tables had been pushed together and were being set for a feast. The restaurant, which debuted in June, is a collaboration between the consultant Justin Chearno and partners Randy Moon, Christina Topsoe and her husband, the musician James Murphy — who invited the rest of their staff and collaborators to celebrate something of a milestone: making it past the one-month mark and finally having a moment to breathe. Read more…

On Sept. 18, the street artist Shepard Fairey will open his first solo show in New York since 2010’s “Mayday” — the suitably colossal closing exhibition at the now-defunct Deitch Projects. Fairey’s latest offering, a series of new mixed-media paintings titled “On Our Hands,” will serve as his inaugural exhibition at Jacob Lewis Gallery, effectively consummating a 10-year friendship between the artist and Mr. Lewis, the gallery’s owner and the first director of the influential Pace Prints in Chelsea. “Jacob looks at every aspect of what the artist is doing, not just the genre, the price or how in fashion you are,” notes Fairey from his studio in Los Angeles, where he continues to finalize the collection. “If you look at the other artists he’s worked with, whether it’s Ryan McGinness or How and Nosm, they’re the only people doing what they do.”

After more than a quarter-century as a professional artist, Fairey’s work has become instantly recognizable, as his particular aesthetic sensibilities — Russian Constructivism, the global wartime propaganda, Barbara Kruger-style advertorial machinations, Jasper Johns Americana — have solidified. So has his motivation: “My mantra has always been ‘question everything,’” Fairey says. “I’m not just trying to seduce people with an image, I’m trying to snap them out of a trance.” The political concerns that have long spurred his work, from corruption and authority to the environment and universal personhood, are again strongly in evidence here. Read more…

A journalist from Ohio who once went undercover at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Club for a story, Gloria Steinem emerged in the ’70s as the aviator-shaded face — and de facto voice — of the women’s movement. Here, a front-line look at Steinem’s legacy. More…

This past weekend, east of Berlin’s city center on the banks of the River Spree, and despite the August heat, an invite-only crowd of local and international creative types arrived just before sunset, by land and by water, to enjoy the latest in a series of “Jackie O” outdoor parties. Their host, the Berlin-based developer Christian Rosche, is known for bringing together interesting artists, collectors, investors, DJs, chefs and scenesters to help cultivate an active, creative community in Berlin. As Rosche says, for him, it’s all about “catalyzing magic moments, where people are so happy and grateful to come together, be themselves and share their talents, and truly connect.”

The party took place at the recently dubbed Spreestudios, an artist enclave on 25,000 square meters of reclaimed waterfront, slated to house studios, ateliers, workshops, a restaurant and a marina over the next few years. Rosche has already developed multiple spaces for the local creative community through his company, the Kunstfreunde (Friends of Art), though none quite so ambitious in scale as Spree. He fell in love with the land a decade ago, and broke ground two years ago, inspired by the site’s unique history: From the 1920s to the ’40s, it hosted massive public baths that attracted nearly 10,000 visitors a day; from the ’50s to the ’90s, it was the German Democratic Republic’s customs department. When the Berlin Wall fell, the land was deserted and returned to wilderness. While Spree comes to life, the riverside parcel — mostly grass and trees, except for the few buildings currently under construction — will be home to a series of artist installations, pop-up events and the seasonal Jackie O Bar, named for Rosche’s boat. Moored at the Spreestudios dock, the 1968 Vertens Comtesse 55 was once owned, in fact, by Jackie and Aristotle themselves. Read more…